What is the value, or the fun of finally getting to the top in music if you forget yourself and leave your true voice behind in the process? If we’ve learned anything about modern mainstream country music in the last few years, it’s how incredibly easy it is to compose and record such garbage, and how just about anyone regardless of talent level can perform it thanks to Autotune and other enhancements. The endurance test for many modern “country” artists is not if they’re skilled as musicians and entertainers, but if they can steel themselves from their own inner compass and moral dialogue, and still perform drivel simply because they know it will sell.

As the buds of success from independent music continue to sprout up all across the nearly barren mainstream country music landscape, it’s time to begin to marvel about just how broad based the swell behind independent-minded artists has become. The successes of Chis Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell have been addressed ad nauseam. Now Cody Jinks and Tyler Childers, and a host of others are joining their ranks, with more seeming to be added weekly.

Texas music artists Cody Johnson and Aaron Watson have taken a decidedly different approach to cracking the riddle of how to rise to the level of mainstream interest without compromising your original sound and purpose. To many purists, they’re the Texas version of country pop, though even this prognosis comes with the concession that they’re still much better than the mainstream.

Both men have also chosen their ladder of ascent to be the rodeo circuit and straight-laced family crowds as opposed to the underground or honky tonk scene where Sturgill Simpson and Cody Jinks sprang from, and both have navigated this path to resounding success. Against all odds, Cody and Aaron have found moderate success even at mainstream radio—once thought to be impenetrable by the independent ranks. And while the massive Rodeo Houston in Texas almost solely caters to headliner acts outside of the Lone Star State these days, both men have been awarded big time performance slots in recent years, and filled the seats the same as their out-of-state, mainstream counterparts.

These successes now mean Cody Johnson and Aaron Watson are gaining the deeper recognition of the mainstream side of the country music business, with Cody Johnson recently signing to Warner Music Nashville. This news was met with just as many groans as it was cheers. Remember what happened when Texas music’s Granger Smith signed with the big Nashville label? Or when The Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen, and others trekked to Nashville, only to sell out, be stonewalled, or were forced into some compromise that didn’t result in the commercial success hoped for, and/or alienated their established fan bases?

But the Cody Johnson’s deal is structured a bit different. His own CoJo Music label is still calling the shots. And as we hear from his first single, “On My Way To You,” Johnson has not shaped himself in Music Row’s image, he’s trying to reshape Music Row into his.

On the surface, it’s hard to label “On My Way To You” as an exciting radio single, or one you sense will streak up the charts in an environment where Cody Johnson has to do battle with the likes of Kane Brown, Luke Combs, and Florida Georgia Line. But what Cody Johnson has that puts him ahead of the gaggle of mid-level generic country male newcomers who seem to be a dime a dozen in the middle of the charts these days is a strong and dedicated fan base.

Many were shocked to see “On My Way To You” top the Country Digital Songs Sales chart during its debut week, but they shouldn’t be. That’s Cody Johnson’s fan base supporting their Texas boy like they always do. What’s really shocking is the song is already at #37 on mainstream country radio in only two weeks—Cody’s best chart performance of his career already, beating out “With You I Am,” which crested at #40. It’s also #25 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Already “On My Way To You” is a success, and will be heading even further up the charts, and sooner than later.

But none of this would mean anything if the song wasn’t any good, or wasn’t country, or wasn’t Cody Johnson. But this may be one of the better songs of Cody Johnson’s career, even if it’s a career defined more by sitting down in a laid back cowboy style as opposed to wowing critics with songwriting, or presenting some hard-edged “Outlaw” attitude. “On My Way To You” is a well-written love song with a definable and easily-relatable story, prominent steel guitar and fiddle in the mix, and a guitar solo. It also rises and falls pretty predictably in the conventional verse-chorus style. It’s not a world-beater. But it’s a real solid offering.

If Cody Johnson can top charts and find radio traction for a song like “On My Way To You” in two weeks, this is a very positive sign for Cody Johnson’s move to Nashville representation. It’s also a very positive sign for country music. Radio is the last bastion to be conquered by the independent wave helping to restore the roots of country to the mainstream, and arguably the most important medium to address in that struggle. Seeing “On My Way To You” licensed to CoJo Music LLC assures you Johnson is still in control. And seeing it find traction and shoot up charts gives you great hope for the future of country music.

60 Comments

JB-Chicago
August 25, 2018 @
9:38 am

I think it’s a very good song! Hit single? Not sure. Hopefully the album will be as solid as this and Warner doesn’t screw him up.
“Cody Johnson has to do battle with the likes of Kane Brown, Luke Combs, and Florida Georgia Line.” I know you’re not insinuating that Luke Combs’ music is = to these other 2 at least I hope you aren’t Trig but some might read it that way. Luke is still the one bright spot on radio in my opinion. There’s certainly room for Cody to do battle as well.

Yes, I was speaking more to the overnight sensation aspect behind Kane Brown and Luke Combs which is going to make them hard to beat in the charts anytime soon, regardless of what one thinks about their music. But going to battle with Tyler Chase, and Chase Bryant, and Bryant Chase, and Tyler Bryant, he should be able to hopscotch them because Cody Johnson has actual fans and isn’t just solely relying on Spotify placement.

(Un-)popular opinion: i like “On My Way To You”.
The Cody Johnson sound is not hardcore country & “On My Way…” is the kind of song his current fanbase will like & country radio can play without being “too country”.

Country radio is open for new names right now: Riley Green, Travis Denning, Jimmie Allen, Brandon Lay, Carlton Anderson & the god-awful Mitchell Tenpenny. Cody Johnson is the right guy at the right time to fill the place for the mainstream/traditional/nice guy-position.

But he is walking on thin ice. It’s only a question of time until the Nashville-machine will try to turn Cody Johnson into the next pop-country sensation singing a duet with Spotify-star Boobsy XXL.
His first Warner/CoJo-album will be telling.

Lead singles are usually the time for an artist to sell out if they’re going to. By proving he can have success with a song like “On My Way To You,” especially in just two weeks I think gives him a lot of pull to be able to do what he wants to do. Also can’t underscore enough, his major label deal is a partnership with his own CoJo music. I don’t see the Music Row suits having much sway over the creative process, only giving Cody Johnson a boost behind his efforts. If the early success of “On My Way To You” is any indication, they got the chemistry right with this particular Texas transplant, at least so far.

BTW I see a lot of people think auto tune (or other tuning plugs), is only the T-Pain or Cher effect. That is only an extreme and deliberate setting of auto tune. Unfortunately, it’s probably on a lot more vocals than you realize, because when it is used as intended (to pitch correct in a natural way), it’s hard to hear.

Not surprised. When your hero is Chris Ledoux, you can’t possibly sell out like the rest of these ‘country’ acts. Saw Cody live in Chicago in 2017. The show ended up selling out an hour before he took the stage. Best show I have ever been to.

Ya know Bill I saw him @ Joe’s in January and the night before Aaron Watson played to about 5 or 600 and I was shocked that Cody drew almost triple what Aaron did being that I think they’re music is about equal and manager Bob told me they were expecting double due to advance ticket sales and Cody skews to a younger audience. It didn’t hurt that the rodeo/bull riding show was in town that night up the street at the Allstate Arena where the weekend shows were heavily advertised. You can’t beat the Aaron Watson/Cody Johnson weekend on the first weekend of January!

Joe’s was where I saw him too in April of that year. I agree, his audience is definitely younger. Most of those in the crowd were definitely in the 20-30 age group. Saw a few cowboys there even, legit Texans no doubt.

I wonder if this is all part of a super-secret scheme of the industry to usher in a “new class of ’89″… what if they’re prepping to have a complete overhaul of the country landscape in 2020 like there was in 1990? Of course that might be asking too much of the mainstream country industry, where most of the talking heads seem like they simply don’t care anymore, but one can hope.

That’d be nice. I’ve done without radio for almost a decade because of the dumpster fire Nashville has turned into, and while there’s been no shortage of new music in my library because of that, it’d sure be nice to turn on the radio and get Nashville music that at least doesn’t suck.

Love ya Trigger but could not disagree more with your comment above …..
I posted extensively on this song in the Dustin Lynch article , I believe , so I won’t repeat myself ,
I think this is Cody ‘ going for the throat’ , as it were , …..making the necessary concessions by releasing a watered-down ( lyrically ) piece of tried and true cliche in order to get a chart foothold . Keep in mind I’m speaking as a big Cody fan and loved his entire last record BECAUSE of the freshness lyrically and , of course , the fact that it is , indeed , a COUNTRY record .

I’m really impressed with Cody Johnson. My band was supposed to do a show with him a couple years ago, and it didn’t pan out, but we finally got to share a bill at a festival this year, and he blew me away. He’s a class act. Music was great, and his band was top notch.
i get kinda’ tired of the cussing and (to me) disrespect of the audience of some of the “cooler” acts,but Cody didn’t do that. He was a gentleman on stage and off. It was refreshing.
More power to him.

So many caveats in this article. Well it’s not a “word beater”. It’s not outlaw, it’s not exciting, he’s not wowing critics with songwriting…Man it’s a damn good country song. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Also, Wade and Randy went to Nashville, but the albums produced on major labels were still solid albums. I am sure they regret one or two songs or some production choices, but it’s real hard to compare their sojourn to Nashville to the likes of Granger, Pat of Jack (Barefoot and Crazy?).

I’m basing mine on other instances of Tyler rubbing people the wrong way back home and this adds on to it. Was it the greatest cover? No not at all, it sounded flat and yeah Jake forgot some lyrics. But the way Tyler responded seemed more like a slight then some playful ribbing. It was a chance for Tyler to be appreciative and maybe gain more fans but instead he came off as a prick. I’ll stand by my words on this that he could of handled it better.

Couldn’t agree with you more. With all the shit going on in the world is that something to get so worked up about? The comments in that thread though are pretty much the reason I don’t like the popularity contest – I mean – social media.

You don’t understand. That boy is getting too big for his britches. He needs to be knocked down a peg or two and remember where he came from. He was not raised that way. I think maybe he’s been hanging around Sturgill too much. 😉

Seriously, though. The notion of Owen covering Feathered Indians strikes me as surreal. It’s like if Tony Orlando had pulled out an acoustic guitar and played Tangled Up in Blue.

I do understand, and I think humility is a virtue. Would be cool if artists didn’t developed bigger egos as they became successful. My comment was about it not being THAT upsetting. It’s hard to put yourself in someone’s head who is pretty quickly becoming famous…I’ll still give him the benefit of the doubt for now, especially considering his comment was relatively playful…

Hey, ScottG. The motivation for my somewhat hot take and definitely sarcastic comment (I have no idea how Childers was raised) has to do with an observation that I and probably others have made when a favorite artist gets big and is judged way too harshly by old fans when the artist says or does something they find objectionable. Don’t want to necessarily paint 63Guild with that broad brush, whose comments I tend to like.

Not really neccessary, again he had a chance to do the old “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all” route and just acknowledge it and moved on. By all accounts Jake was extremely nice to everyone there and everyone really appreciated him singing Tyler in the city that helped put Tyler on the map. Tyler had a chance to get more fans, but instead acted childish. People who haven’t heard of Tyler may have been more open to checking him out if this was more positive. You’re not going to win on overhauling the country landscape by antics like this.

That’s my problem with a lot of fans of Americana is they act way too cool and when someone in the mainstream acknowledges our artists, fans have a habit of crapping on the mainstream artist because it’s the cool thing to do.

Antics? Tyler’s comment seemed like a pretty innocuous joke. I didn’t get the impression that there was any obvious malice there. Jake Owen’s response on Twitter indicated that he didn’t take offense either.

You keep saying he had an opportunity to make more fans but instead made an ass out of himself, as if you know that he didn’t gain more fans because of Jake Owen covering the song despite his playful tweet

Actually 63Guild I agree with you. Tyler’s tweet wasn’t that big a deal (as evidenced in his reply) but the social media finger pointers in that thread who think they are too cool for school are gross. Reminds me of a bunch of school bullies belittling someone. Don’t know why, but I would hope Tyler fans would be a bit less vicious. Social media commenters, for the most part remind me this French movie called Ridicule, based on a time in French history when it was fashionable to outwit and mock other people. That really is what we are becoming. I’m trying to be more aware of that and not do it myself…

ScottG I agree. I know a lot of people have expressed a different interpretation of Tyler’s intent than me, but hey we have all been civil through this which I why I like this site. I’ll admit my view of my interpretation of this comes from seeing Tyler come up in Lexington to where he is now and just random things that have rubbed me the wrong way.

But yeah going over to that thread and reading fan comments from both sides is just ridiculous to say the least and you’re example hit the nail on the head on how it is on social media.

What makes you say that Watson is a big part of the article? He just mentions him a couple times in reference to the similarities between how he and Cody have advanced their careers. That hardly counts as being a big part of the article.

Mike took the exact words right out of my mouth. Reading this article had me thinking “why are we’re talking about aaron”. They both wear cowboy hats but the similarities end there. Have you listened to that shit he puts out? Cody has a much better flow to his music

Promising news indeed. Jon Pardi I think is the traditional yet modern flare that radio needs. Jon is capable of landing those top 10 & #1 songs. His entire California Sunrise album is perfect and has a great traditional, rowdy, honkytonk, southern rock edge to it. It has a great blend to it. Young college kids & grumpy traditionalists can all enjoy it.
Cody is great. Very promising. But I don’t think this song will be a #1 on radio… And its not his fault or his labels.. Its to blame with radio of course. A good goal for this song is Top 20. Maybe Top 15 at best.
I wish William Michael Morgan had more support. Vinyl was a beautiful song & it didn’t even chart. I Met A Girl single made it to #2 but maybe just because Sam Hunt was a cowriter?

Jon Pardi?
The (more or less) traditional elements on California Sunrise are window dressing. Below it’s mainstream country & the voice of Jon Pardi is grating. The current single “Night Shift” sounds like a Brantley Gilbert track with fiddle. Post-bro radio fodder.

I mostly like traditional sounding stuff, but I saw him by chance after TT, opening for Miranda, and he put on a surprisingly good show. He’s definelty on the “fun” and pop side for sure, but for me that’s ok now and then. I just wish he was as a pop as “country” got.

Have you heard Head Over Boots, Cowboy Hat, She Ain’t In It, California Sunrise, Can’t turn You Down? – Super country traditional to me. His songs make you dance & feel good. He gives me George Strait vibes at times & by how he dresses and performs live.
Dirt on my boots is definitely a rowdy rocking country song – pushed by his label. But now look at his career. #1s on Radio and winning new artist awards. He still is very traditional to me. Listen to his song Call Me Country. It will be on his next album!
By the way, I hate Aldean & Brantley Gilbert music too. Its too tough, hard core.
But a lot of Pardi is fun easy going!!

Cody’s vocals do absolutely nothing for me. Give me Mo Pitney or William Michael Morgan. I guess its good that an independent is making waves, but is the bar this low? Do vocals not count for anything anymore? Yes, I know I sound like a crotchety old man. (I’m 25) But I work at a traditional country radio station, amd I’m sick of people telling me I should listen to Cody, and having to explain to them he doesn’t fit our format, because vocals still count for something on our station. We look for uniqueness. Someone who makes you stop in your tracks the first time you hear them. To me, Cody sounds like every Texas act that I’ve been told to listen to. He doesn’t stand out. Good luck to him on mainstream radio, and I really do mean that.

I agree with Hogs, Cody Johnson, like Aaron Watson are good even above “good” but nothing makes them “stand out”. I like both of em but not like I like Jinks, Whitey (not William Micheal who’s ok) Morgan, Pardi or even Luke Combs. There’s a difference, and I’m a lot older and more crotchety than Hogs!!

Sounds good to me, Cody Johnson is one of those artist than I can pull up and press shuffle and I’m good to go.

As I was reading the comments it occurred to me that the country fans on these threads are a lot like Star Wars fans. No matter what an artists does, it will never be good enough or live up to the expectations of said fans.

“This prognosis comes with the concession that they’re still much better than the mainstream.”
It’s sad though that the bar is just so ridiculously low that by saying that it does t really mean anything anymore. I mean… should that even be referenced as a benchmark? I got no problem with this song though…sounds good to me overall. For my taste, could of used a bit less rock drums and guitar, but I can live with that sometimes.

I didn’t have time to read ALL the comments on here, but has anyone mentioned that his new album was recorded and fully produced WELL before he struck a deal with Warner? His next album will be right down the middle, Cody Johnson music, that we’re all used to. The NEXT album will be the one to watch to see if Nashville had any kind of change on him… Only time will tell….

You can count me as one of the people that thinks of Cody Johnson as just Texas-flavored pop-country, though I wouldn’t say I’m a hardcore country purist. I love traditional country music, but I also love Americana, alt-country, folk, country rock, and even a little pop-country here and there. Not to mention all the non country affiliated music I listen to. I will concede that CoJo’s music is better/more country than Nashville’s current output, but it would have been right at home on mainstream country radio ten to fifteen years ago, and I was no more a fan of that era of pop-country than I am of the current era.

I found Cody accidently when he released Gotta Be Me. I fell in love with his music instantly and acually used With You I Am for a high school freshman english project. One thing I always enjoyed in the fact that he is country and I can escape the pop that is passed off as country today when I listen to him. I understand the this is how Cody makes his living, but why does everyone need to be so focused on how well the song does on mainstream when we know how well it does to us? I say let Cody make his music and his fanbase will support him. Who needs radio when Cody has the fanbase he does? Just my way of thinking about things.